100 



Canadian Forestry Journal, Odoher-Novemher, 1914 



Because of the stirring up by the so- 

 ciety a good deal of information has been 

 gathered. It is considered, on a careful 

 estimate, that there are about nine million 

 acres in Scotland which might profitably 

 be retained in forest. Some of this is now 

 in forest, but the greater part is in the 

 so-called 'deer forests,' which are really 

 not forests at all, and in grazing lands. 

 In some cases a number of crofters till 

 small patches of land in the valleys, and 

 graze sheep and cattle on the uplands. It 

 is not ijroposed to turn everything upside 

 down at once, but a careful review has 

 shown that part of the poorest of the land 

 used for grazing might be put into forest, 

 with the result that not only would the 

 districts sustain a considerably larger 

 population, but the people would be better 

 off, as they would have winter work in the 

 woods. 



To accomplish, the society has chiefly to 

 convince individual owners. Some owners 

 are convinced, but lack the necessary capi- 

 tal to turn their grazing lands, which bring 

 them in an annual return, into forests, 

 which, in the beginning, will not turn them 

 in cash for a good many years, even though 

 eventually the profits will be greater. 



In regard to the part the Government is 

 playing in this question, this has been so 

 far chiefly confined to demoTistration for- 

 ests, and the aim of the society has been 

 to secure more and better demonstration 

 stations So far all the examples are of 

 forest plantations, none of them more than 

 a comparatively few years old. They de- 

 sire the Government to secure some lands 

 already forested, so that experiments in 

 cutting, thinning and rotation may be 

 made at once for the benefit of private 

 owners. 



One thing that they have learned in 

 Scotland is that the rapidity of growth of 

 different trees varies greatly in different 

 districts, even though separated by a com- 

 paratively short distance. In the High- 

 lands and on the east coast the Scotch pine 

 thrives well, but in the very damp districts 

 of the west coast, where the rainfall runs 

 from 90 to 120 inches per year, its growtli 

 is much surpassed by the Douglas fir im- 

 ported from British Columbia. And again, 

 where the position is both wet and ex- 

 posed to liigh winds, the latter cedes first 

 place to the Sitka spruce, also an importa- 

 tion from the Pacific coast. 



We are accustomed to think of Great 

 Britain as an old country of small area, 

 all of which has been so carefully surveyed 

 and examined that all resources are fully 

 known and are in process of full develop- 

 ment. This is a mistake. There is a body, 

 known as the Development Connnission, 

 charged with the duty of examining into 

 any features of agriculture, forestry, min- 

 ing, fishing and the rest that may promise 



increased wealth for the country, and to 

 make recommendations in regard to their 

 development. It is this body which, in the 

 first instance, provides the funds to pur- 

 chase demonstration forests, and these 

 forests are then placed under the direction 

 of the Woods and Forests Branch of the 

 Government. 



In regard to forestry education, Scot- 

 land, like North America, is now suffering 

 from too many schools. One good school 

 would supply all the foresters required for 

 Scotland if all the available land were now 

 covered with forests, but at the present 

 there are three schools, no one of which is 

 willing to make way for the others. 



Mrt. K,. H. CAMPBELL, 



Dominion Director of Forestry, Made an 

 Honorary Member R. S. A. S. 



These are some of the problems before 

 the people of Scotland, problems which the 

 Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society is 

 helping to solve. The society has gone at 

 its task with enthusiasm and perseverance, 

 and there are a number of features of its 

 work, notably that of the annual excursion 

 to forest districts, which the Canadian 

 Forestry Association may study to advan- 

 tage. 



To be consistent, the man who sits back 

 and expects that nature will replace the 

 burned forest might also expect the supply 

 men and the mechanics to replace, free of 

 cost, that which they had sui)plied or pro- 

 duced, and which, through carelessness, had 

 been destroved bv fire. 



